Gina became pregnant again. We both were very happy and perhaps a bit worried about it. But through her first two trimesters, all was going well. We spent a lot of time outdoors, hiking easy trails and getting fresh air. I made sure our diet was healthy as well. One day, we headed up to a short trail that ran alongside a section of John Hart Lake. As we walked along, Gina all of a sudden said she was feeling faint and needed me to hold on to her.
Her skin went pale on her face, and she began to get a cold sweat. I was holding onto her. Then she lost consciousness, and I could not hold her up, so I gently laid her down in the moss at our feet. It was about half a mile to the car. I did not know what to do. I began to panic. I realized that I had to get a hold of myself, I knelt to hold her head on my arm and slowly rubbed her face while talking to her. She finally opened her eyes and smiled up at me. She was shaking and told me that she had seen herself being laid down by ladies all dressed in white; “they could have been angels”, she said. After she began to feel better, we made our way to the car. That was the first time anyone ever called me an angel.
During this time, my wife’s father came back into her life. He had been sober for many years and now spent his time commercial fishing and volunteering at the Victoria Friendship Center. I found that, contrary to all the stories I had heard about this man, he was a true gentleman. We became friends. He was up from Victoria visiting when Gina went into labour. I took her to the hospital, where her mom would join us. Dad stayed at our house. Gina’s two brothers came to keep him company. They would wait to hear about the birth; we did not want her mom and dad together at any point.
The labour was long and, from what I was seeing, quite painful. Damn, I had no idea what to expect. Every time a contraction came, she would squeeze my hand so hard I felt she was breaking bones. At one point, she said to me in a very dark and deeply demonic-like voice, “You will never touch me again”. At this point, I would not have been surprised to see her head rotate around. At 2:30 am, my child was finally on his way into the world. They were telling her to push, and the baby came halfway out. I still could not tell if it was a boy or a girl. Another push, and it was a boy; he came forth completely covered in shit and sporting a boner. My son Robert joins the world. He was beautiful. They quickly took him away to clean him up. I looked at my wife, and she was sleeping. When they brought my boy back, I was reaching out for him. My mother-in-law was quicker and jumped up to take him in her arms before I was able to. I waited more than half an hour to hold my son. I was not too happy about this, but she was an elder. So I had to bite my tongue, hold back my words and wait my turn.
I got home at around 4:30 am and to my surprise, Dad was still up waiting to hear about the birth, and both my brothers-in-law were still there. We all sat at my kitchen table while I regaled them with the tales of my son Robert’s birth. The boys rolled a bunch of joints that we smoked while we chatted and laughed. The joints kept going past Dad’s face, and he got pretty high. I took a look at him, and he was smiling like high heaven. His mouth was grinning, and his eyes were all a sparkle. The boys eventually went home, and Dad was already sleeping on the couch. All in all, it was a great day. I went to bed dreaming about my son. At 8:30 in the morning, the phone rang. It was my wife calling to say she was ready to come home. Damn, that was fast, but she is a tough young lady. So it was off to bring my family home. Robert was born on March 29, 1988. This was the birthday of my best friend, how cool is that?